nto my own conduct, I should have found many things more worthy
of censure than these poor curs' mode of devouring their food.

The lane I was passing along was cut across by a broad and open street,
the favourite promenade of the fashionables of Caneville. There might be
seen about mid-day, when the sun was shining, troops of well-dressed dogs
and a few superior cats, some attended by servants, others walking alone,
and many in groups of two or three, the male dogs smoking cigars, the
ladies busily talking, while they looked at and admired one another's
pretty dresses and bonnets.

By the time I had got thus far, I had become tolerably used to my new
work, and could imagine that when the passers-by cast their eyes on my
barrow, their glances had more to do with the meat than with myself. But
I did not like the idea of crossing the road where such grand dogs were
showing off their finery. After a little inward conversation with myself,
which finished with my muttering between my teeth, "Job, brother Job, I
am ashamed of you! where is your courage, brother Job? Go on; go on;" I
went on without further delay.

I had got half-way across, and was already beginning to praise myself for
the ease with which I turned my barrow in and out of the crowd without
running over the toes of any of the puppies, who were far too much
engaged to look after them themselves when a dirty little cur stopped me
to buy a penn'orth of meat. I set down my load just in time to avoid
upsetting a very fat and splendidly dressed doggess, who must, if I had
run the wheel into her back, and it was very near it, have gone head
foremost into the barrow. This little incident made me very hot, and I
did not get cooler when my customer squatted down in the midst of the
well-dressed crowd, and began tearing his meat in the way I have before
described as being so unpleasant. At the same moment another dog by his
side, with a very ragged coat, and queer little face, held up his paw to
ask for "a little bit," as he was very hungry, "only a little bit." I
should, probably, have given him a morsel, as I remembered the time when
I wanted it as much as he seemed to do, but for an unexpected meeting.
Turning my head at a rustling just behind me, I saw a well-dressed dog,
with a hat of the last fashion placed so nicely on his head that it
seemed to be resting on the bridge of his nose, the smoke from a cigar
issuing gracefully from his mouth, and his head kept in an